Scottish business leaders have delivered a stark warning to Alex Salmond that his timetable for a referendum on independence is “unnecessarily protracted” and the delay could hit investment and jobs in the country.

The CBI in Scotland, Scotland’s biggest business organisation, has come out strongly against the First Minister’s plan to postpone the historic vote until the autumn of 2014, saying it should be held sooner.

The organisation has added its voice to the demand by Michael Moore, the Scottish Secretary, who this week laid out a parliamentary timetable which would mean the referendum being held a year earlier, in